Halloween Family Fun with the City of Ottawa Museums

Looking for spooktacular family fun in Ottawa this weekend? Whether you’re a fearless adult or a tiny trick-or-treater, the City of Ottawa museums have an adventure that’s perfect for you. Here’s the details, in their own words.

Confront your most basic fears in Ottawa’s newest and hottest Haunted Village! Our cast and crew will chill you to the core as you wander unassisted in small groups through creepy forested areas and dozens of historic buildings in the pitch black dark of night. This experience will disorient and frighten you over and over again until you’re not sure what you’ve imagined and what was real. Are you sure you can handle it? We’ve got a safe word, just in case.

Cost: $10/person. Not recommended for anyone under the age of 14. Visitors under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.

Your senses will be in overdrive during these popular events as you look, listen, and feel for changes in the environment that signal a presence from the beyond. Psychic Connie Adams leads a size-restricted group of participants through a traditional séance in one of Ottawa’s oldest wood-framed houses. Sign up soon as our séances are super popular and sell out fast!

A common form of entertainment, storytelling has remained popular throughout human history. During this event, you’ll be led through the site in the dark by a costumed guide, making stops at different vantage points next to historic ruins or overlooking the Ottawa River, and listening to different haunting ghost stories.

Cost: $15/person. Registration required. 14+ years of age only, please.

Child-sized scale models of some of Ottawa’s most iconic landmarks – like Parliament Hill and Rideau Hall – set the scene for some truly epic trick-or-treating! But the fun doesn’t end there. Wear your costume and create your own legendary monster using our large-scale mix -’n’-match book and then use a Nerf gun to capture some of these fiends for further investigation! Have your face painted and be the star of our costume parade!

Looking for a safe location to trick-or-treat but want a more authentic neighbourhood feeling than a mall can provide? Our Halloween Hijinks lets your family enjoy all the fun of going door to door to pick up treats and learn a thing or two along the way from our historic costumed characters like Little Orphan Annie, Popeye and Olive Oyl, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and the all-time classic characters from the Wizard of Oz. Play a game to match our characters to their history and make a 1930s tabletop lantern to take home in your goodie bag!

Family-friendly ghost stories, turnip and pumpkin carving, making a miniature birch bark canoe, playing fortune-telling games, and crafting traditional Halloween greeting cards make Halloween at Horaceville a great choice for an October weekend. You and your family will be treated to 19th century snacks cooked over an open fire using historic recipes, too!

Looking for a safe, family-friendly place to celebrate Halloween? We’re pulling out all the spooky stops with a costume parade (make sure to don your Halloween best!), fortune-telling games, bobbing for apples, face painting, and pumpkin decorating. The museum is definitely the place to be for Halloween fun!

Cost: $6/person, $10/pair, $16/family

Disclaimer: The City of Ottawa is a sponsor of this blog and provided the information about the various events. I wouldn’t share them if I didn’t think they were terrific family fun!

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Hi, I’m Danielle Donders, but my friends call me Dani, and the Internet calls me DaniGirl. I'm a Canadian photographer, blogger, government social media strategist and mom to three boys. Everything else you need to know - and a whole lot more! - is in the blog.

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